Rachel Ray Dunkin Donuts Ad Banned for Terrorist Symbolism

[airmenair]

BOSTON - Dunkin’ Donuts said today it stopped running an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.

The coffee and baked goods chain said the ad that began appearing online May 7 was pulled over the past weekend because "the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."

In the spot, Ray wears the scarf around her neck and holds an iced coffee while standing in front of trees with pink blossoms.

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf looked similar to the black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf. Critics who fueled online complaints about the ad in blogs say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.

The kaffiyeh, Malkin wrote in a column posted online last Friday, "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."

A statement issued by Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin’ Brands Inc., however, said the scarf had a paisley design, and was selected by a stylist for the advertising shoot.

"Absolutely no symbolism was intended," the company said.

Dunkin’ spokeswoman Michelle King said the ad appeared on the chain’s Web site, as well as other commercial sites.

Malkin, in a posting following up on last week’s column, said of Dunkin’s decision to pull the ad, "It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists."

Ray, host of the Food Network television program "30 Minute Meals" as well as a syndicated daytime talk show, began appearing in ads for Dunkin’ Donuts in March 2007. When Dunkin’ announced the partnership, it said Ray would be featured in TV, print, radio and online spots in a campaign running through 2010.

http://news.bostonherald.com/busines...ome&position=7


Idiots, seriously how can you even connect the two? It is like they have an agenda to find anything that could possibly be vaguely connected to terrorism and start whining. That is like me saying, well, the trees in the background are pink, which is sexest towards men. Ban! Let's get some blue trees in here...

[the Interceptor]

Well ... this scarf clearly is a Palestinian symbol. Palestine clearly is against Israel, Isreal clearly is a friend of the USA, and Dunkin' clearly is a US-american company. You go figure the rest...

[Lilleput]

[chaos386]

While I hate the accusation that kaffiyeh = terrorism, the ad wasn't banned: they willingly pulled it. The point of an advertisement is to promote your products, so if people in your demographic find it offensive for whatever reason, you stop running it.

[smib]

Originally Posted by Lilleput

(Iced Coffee extremist)

[airmenair]

Originally Posted by chaos386

While I hate the accusation that kaffiyeh = terrorism, the ad wasn't banned: they willingly pulled it. The point of an advertisement is to promote your products, so if people in your demographic find it offensive for whatever reason, you stop running it.

Yea, bad choice of words. Dunkin Donuts just wanted to avoid any serious conflict and upset people so they just pulled it.

[Quadrax]

Originally Posted by chaos386

While I hate the accusation that kaffiyeh = terrorism, the ad wasn't banned: they willingly pulled it. The point of an advertisement is to promote your products, so if people in your demographic find it offensive for whatever reason, you stop running it.

Yeah true, but either way it is a sad indictment on society that a garment that has been popular among posh old white ladies for decades could possibly be seen as offensive.

[Firecat]

This is a good piece on it....

http://www.newsweek.com/id/139334

They should be ashamed, and not just because Krispy Kreme offers a superior glazed cruller but because they validated the warped idea that the mere existence of a race—and anything worn by its people—can be controversial. It's doubtful the ad would have been pulled if a handful of critics found Ray's garb too Hispanic or too African-American.

[Blind_Io]

Umm, who the hell is Rachael Ray and why should I give a shit if she is trying to sell coffee?

[Blayde]

[airmenair]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Umm, who the hell is Rachael Ray and why should I give a shit if she is trying to sell coffee?

Shit chef/cook, basically.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Umm, who the hell is Rachael Ray and why should I give a shit if she is trying to sell coffee?

Originally Posted by Anthony Bourdain

“She's got a magazine, a TV empire, all these best-selling books — I'm guessing she's not hurting for money,” Anthony ranted re: Rachael in a portion of the interview republished in the New York Post’s Page Six. “She's hugely influential, particularly with children. And she's endorsing Dunkin’ Donuts. It's like endorsing crack for kids.”

.....The crotchety cook made it clear he’s not coming from some moral high ground. “I'm not a very ethical guy,” Anthony said. “I don't have a lot of principles. But somehow that seems to me over the line. Juvenile diabetes has exploded. Half of Americans don't have necks. And (Rachael’s) up there saying, ‘Eat some [bleeping] Dunkin' Donuts. You look great in that swimsuit — eat another doughnut!’ That's evil.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21255843/

Originally Posted by Anthony Bourdain

Complain all you want. It's like railing against the pounding surf. She only grows stronger and more powerful. Her ear-shattering tones louder and louder. We KNOW she can't cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So...what is she selling us? Really? She's selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She's a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that "Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!" Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, "Hell...I could do that. I ain't gonna...but I could--if I wanted! Now where's my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?" Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better--teach us--and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. "You're doing just fine. You don't even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing...Just sit there. Have another Triscuit..Sleep...sleep..."

http://www.themillionsblog.com/2007/...ain-slams.html

[epp_b]

It's just a fracking scarf!!

[Blind_Io]

Ok, I knew there was a reason I had an instant dislike for her even though I didn't know who she is.

So she has no real talents or skills, so why is she famous? Is she famous for not cooking? Because I don't cook on a regular basis.

[Lilleput]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Ok, I knew there was a reason I had an instant dislike for her even though I didn't know who she is.

So she has no real talents or skills, so why is she famous? Is she famous for not cooking? Because I don't cook on a regular basis.

We got her show here once and it's awful mainly because of her, she's incredibly fake and you just know she's not listening to anything her guests say she's just waiting for the next cue card.

Her show is pretty much just a kitchen and a audience she'll then get B-List celebrities in and she will cook for them something she thinks represents them (It's mainly race stuff like Italian Food for italians)

[Twerp128]

Hold up a second, isn't it people like Rachel Ray that makes the terrorists want to kill us? I don't blame them. If I was an Iraqi and I saw her show I'd want to kill all the Americans too. Rachel Ray is worse then violent video games.

[epp_b]

Rachel Ray is worse then violent video games.

You just won a spot in the funny forum quotes thread

[chaos386]

I think we have to watch out for this Michelle Malkin character, too:

Originally Posted by Katie Halper

Dunkin' Donuts tried to play on Americans' natural freedom-loving and paisley-loving sensibility by insisting that the scarf was "a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design." But Michelle Malkin saw through that silk facade and exposed the truth about Ray's s